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Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: $590.00| Rating: 10

Pros:

sharpness, overall IQ, bokeh, price

Cons:

slow AF, weight

Such a wonderfull lens! Great IQ, ideal focal length at APS-C. Sharpness/bokeh/colours/contrast fantastic! Built like a tank, reliably prized. The AF is accurate but slow. I donť get the point why this lens is not more popular?

Tokina makes fantastic zooms! I really miss this piece of glass now when switched to FF camera.

korthaj

Registered: August 2010Posts: 1

Tokina 50-135mm f/2.8 AT-X 535 AF PRO DX review by korthaj

Review Date: 8/30/2010

Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: $550.00| Rating: 9

Pros:

Sharpness, Bokeh, Construction and Size

Cons:

No AF-S

Wanted a smaller 70-200 f2.8 type lens and this one felt like a good compromise. The range 50 to 135 suits me better for general photography and portraits, this thing doesnt scare people because it doesnt look big. The 50-135 is compact, very well made and doesnt extend, also it has very good sharpness wide open and renders a very good Bokeh through out its zoom range. Handling it is very pleasant and the rings are damped the only real down side i find to the lens is the lack of AF-S if you need very fast focusing. The tripod collar doesnt bother me personally.
Can be a little prone to flair but the hood is good.
Over all its very good and its my portrait machine for my Nikon d300,

Mac_In_FL

Registered: April 2009Posts: 5

Tokina 50-135mm f/2.8 AT-X 535 AF PRO DX review by Mac_In_FL

Review Date: 8/6/2010

Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: $525.00| Rating: 10

Pros:

Sharp pleasing colors. Excellent build. Useful range.

Cons:

Non-removable tripod mount. Prone to some flare, CA.

I love this lens. This lens should be in everyone's bag if their camera uses an APS-C sensor. I do not believe there is a better quality lens in this zoom range and at this price point.

The images it produces are simply stunning if the photographer does their part. Mine is sharp wide-open with very good color rendition. Excellent bokeh. The images just jump out at you...many would call the "3D effect".

Be aware with Nikon bodies, this does not have a built-in motor, relying on screw drive AF. I have a D300 so no issue but will not D40(X)-D60-D3000-D5000 body.

My only complaint is that you cannot remove the tripod mount. You may be able to remove it if you are willing to disassemble the mount but definitely not for the faint at heart. I have moved it to an "11 o'clock" position to get it out of the way so not too bad.

Use the hood if you are in contra light conditions because it is susceptible to some flare.

Build quality is excellent. This is a pro grade lens in every respect except for AF speed. If it had an HSM, it would be nearing perfection.

wingdo

Registered: September 2009Posts: 5

Tokina 50-135mm f/2.8 AT-X 535 AF PRO DX review by wingdo

Review Date: 10/20/2009

Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: $550.00| Rating: 10

Pros:

incredibly sharp, solid construction, perfect zoom for DX

Cons:

non-removable tripod mount

Having moved from film to DX, this is a great lens as it is the equiv angle of view of a 70-200. Incredibly sharp, pleasing colors, no barrel extension. Tokina's famous build quality.

All my zooms are Tokina and all my primes are Nikon. Tokina just makes crystal sharp zooms.

china2k

Registered: September 2009Posts: 1

Tokina 50-135mm f/2.8 AT-X 535 AF PRO DX review by china2k

Review Date: 9/25/2009

Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: $780.00| Rating: 9

close focus too long (1m could be better for e.g. 50mm lens), focus limit bang sound, a bit softer at 135/2.8

My crosspost: Hi, got this awesome lens this week, based on SLRGear, FM, Optychne, and Photozone reviews. Many thanks to all, the recommendations are just fair!

Overall impressed with the lens. I wish it would focus closer, cause over 1m at 50mm limits the creativity a bit. In particular, my intention is to use the lens as all-round portrait.

AF is casual but fast enough, no worries here. Ofc it could be better with USM, I wish it was. I wish the IS would be there, too - at 100-135mm this quite heavy combo challenges the steadiness of handheld photography. When it comes out, it could be an ultimate one.

Nothing moves or rotates, including MF focus ring during AF. I was searching for this aspect before, and it is not covered anywhere over internet. My 5 cents then.

The field of view changes a bit with focusing - not sure if this is good or bad. Just noticed this phenomenon.

The AF buzzes a little but nothing critical. When the AF hits the limit on both close and infinity ends, it bangs the limiter quite loudly - that is more important and can be irritating at times.

Overall I feel confident and I'm looking forward to real shots!

Denis_333

Registered: July 2009Posts: 1

Tokina 50-135mm f/2.8 AT-X 535 AF PRO DX review by Denis_333

Review Date: 7/20/2009

Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: $737.00| Rating: 9

Pros:

Sharp, construction

Cons:

Not USM

One of the best lens on my 30D (like a 70-200/4 L IS)
Sharp (at 2.8 !), built, compact
Now my 30D is very nice, like my 5D with 24-70/2.8 L

climber

Registered: April 2009Posts: 11

Tokina 50-135mm f/2.8 AT-X 535 AF PRO DX review by climber

Review Date: 4/21/2009

Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: $450.00| Rating: 10

Pros:

Excellent sharpness and IQ, superb buil quality, accurate focus

Cons:

slow focus motor, CA

The lens is absoloutly astounding. Image sharpness above f3.5 is comperable to prime lenses (canon 50mm f1.4). Focusing is very precise and the build quality is comparable to Canon L series (i have a 200mm F2.8L prime).

I used to be an owner of a Sigma 50-150mm f2.8, before i got this lens. Sigma had problems with front focusing, so i sent it back to service. They somehow managed to adjust the focusing, but after using it for a year I sold it, because the image quality of Sigma 50-150mm f2.8 was not impressive.

The only minus of Tokina is slower focusing than Sigma HSM or Canon ultrasonic and a litlle CA. But the price is right..

I can strongly reccomend this great lens!

ptys

Registered: April 2008Posts: 1

Tokina 50-135mm f/2.8 AT-X 535 AF PRO DX review by ptys

Review Date: 4/22/2008

Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: $699.00| Rating: 9

Pros:

sharp, contrasty, well built, nice flower hood

Cons:

ghosting, flare, AF in canon mount, tripod collar doesn't come off

Nice lens overall with great optics. Beautiful for portraits. As they say, built like a tank. Nicely damped rings, solid metal construction. It's sharp wide open until about 100mm. Towards the end starts losing contrast and sharpness at 2.8, but this can be recovered in post processing to some degree. It's not worse at 135 than my 17-50 Tamron at 50, which is not bad.

My gripes in the order of importance would be:
1. Ghosting is quite pronounced, so night cityscapes could be problematic.
2. AF speed should be better at this price point, but the lens does keep up with running kids, etc.

edwardo

Registered: August 2007Posts: 5

Tokina 50-135mm f/2.8 AT-X 535 AF PRO DX review by edwardo

Review Date: 8/8/2007

Would you recommend the product? Yes |
Total Spent: $600.00| Rating: 9

Pros:

sharp, very solid lens

Cons:

on the heavy side

The lens is fast ,very sharp, well built solid professional feel to it. It is however a rather heavy lens and needs to be used at higher shutter speeds or tripod to get all of the sharpness its capable of. It bloke is excellent and is capable of excellent photos. It does require some work on the part of the photographer to get the best results do to the weight and distribution forward on the camera. I used it with a nikon d80, it seems to work better with the d200 as far as fit.